Manish Bapna

Manish Bapna is the executive vice president and managing director of the World Resources Institute, a global research organization that works to address six urgent sustainability challenges: food, forests, water, climate, energy and cities. He served as WRI’s acting president from 2011-2012.

Manish oversees WRI’s programs, chairs WRI’s management team and works to strengthen the impact of WRI research. Under his leadership, the institute has established offices in China, India and Brazil and initiated programs on cities, water, adaptation, and the sustainable development goals.

Before joining WRI in 2007, Manish was executive director of the non-profit Bank Information Centre (BIC), whose mission is to protect rights and promote sustainability in the projects and policies of international financial institutions.

Manish also served as a senior economist and task team leader at the World Bank, where he led multidisciplinary teams in designing and implementing water, watershed, and rural development projects in Asia and Latin America. Several of these projects received “excellence awards” by the Bank and were highly rated in independent evaluations. Earlier, he worked as a strategy consultant for McKinsey & Company in the financial services and technology industries.

As a recognized expert on international development, Manish has been cited in front-page articles in theNew York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the International Herald Tribune. His op-eds are featured in major global and national papers, and he has testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress. Manish serves on the board of directors of Oxfam America and as the incoming Co-Chair of the Open Government Partnership Steering Committee.

Manish received graduate degrees from Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School and an undergraduate degree from MIT. He is married to Geeta Nanda and they have two children, Laila and Arav.

Authored Content

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